Afghan family deported after legal bid fails

An Afghan family who failed in an 11th-hour attempt to prevent their deportation from the UK have been removed from the country, the Home Office said today.

Farid Ahmadi, his wife Feriba, and their children Hadia, six, and Seear, four, were taken from a detention centre this morning and left from an undisclosed airport at 9.50am on a flight to Munich, Germany.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "The departure took place in an orderly and dignified manner."

Campaigners who had gathered at Birmingham International Airport after mistakenly believing the Ahmadis would be taken there to leave the UK, said they would "follow them to the end of the earth" in their bid to keep them in the country.

Paul Rowlands, who, with his partner Soraya Walton, had tried to make the Ahmadi children wards of court, said campaigners would continue their battle in Germany.

Mr Rowlands, 39, from Stourbridge, West Midlands, said: "This is not the end, it is the start.

"We have vowed to follow them to the end of the earth to make them happy. What we are committed to doing is making sure that the family is able to bring up their children in a normal family environment where they have not got to suffer anymore."

Immigration minister Beverley Hughes said she was satisfied the Home Office had acted within international law by returning the family to Germany, where they made their initial asylum application.

Lawyers for the family had launched a judicial review against deportation, concluded just after midnight via telephone, with the judge ruling in favour of the Home Office, the Ahmadis' immigration lawyer Pierre Makhlouf said.

Representatives of the family had argued that the move would be detrimental to the mental health of Mrs Ahmadi and the children.

But the judge ruled there had been no violation in the procedure taken to deport the family, Mr Makhlouf said.

The lawyer claimed a private plane had been chartered to fly the Ahmadis from Birmingham to Munich later today, at a cost of up to £60,000.

The result was "a bitter disappointment", he said, adding: "It is sad that in a case that has so much strength and where the Home Office accepts the harm that would be caused to Mrs Ahmadi by being removed, they have still decided to take the action."

The Government accepted that Mrs Ahmadi would suffer psychological harm if she was deported, Mr Makhlouf said.

He added: "David Blunkett needs to be more compassionate. It is a grave situation when politics overrides the social aspects of a case."

Earlier, protesters blocking the convoy's path and waving placards were bundled out of the road by police as two blacked-out Ford Transit vans, followed by an estate car and a police escort, left the detention centre at Harmondsworth, near Heathrow airport.

Elane Heffernan, of the Committee to Defend Asylum Seekers, said: "It's racist and inhumane. The Ahmadis had our protection and have been betrayed.

"The ordinary people of Britain have to fight for a society which is fair and equal."

She said the alleged £60,000 cost of the flight "could have supported the family for five years".

Mr Ahmadi, 33, a mechanic, and his 24-year-old wife, who wants to train as a nurse, fled Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 2000 claiming they were persecuted and tortured because Mr Ahmadi is the son of an army brigadier who was prominent in the pre-Taliban regime.

They arrived in Germany and spent seven months in asylum camps, where they claim they faced racism and religious bigotry before arriving in the UK.

Mrs Ahmadi suffered two breakdowns and was admitted to hospital twice, her supporters say.

Speaking from the centre Mrs Ahmadi told the BBC

World Service's The World Today programme yesterday: "My friends are here, my family is here, I haven't got any friends or family in Germany. I applied for asylum here - we are happy here.

"When they deport me to Germany, maybe (something) very bad (will) happen with my children and me. I'm so stressed at the moment. Maybe I can't look after my children."

Mr and Mrs Ahmadi were detained after the mosque they were sheltering in, at Lye, near Stourbridge, West Midlands, was stormed by riot police three weeks ago.

Their children joined them under lock and key last Friday when they arrived at the centre to visit their parents.

A weekend of legal drama resulted in a High Court judge ruling the Home Office could continue to hold the youngsters, who were wards of court.

Mrs Hughes said: "Cases of this nature are, of course, very difficult. The Home Office, however, has a duty to maintain effective and credible immigration controls.

"Seeking asylum must be about reaching a safe haven, not deciding on a destination of choice.

"Under the Dublin Convention, where an asylum seeker has made an application in another EU member state, that country takes responsibility for considering the claim.

"The Ahmadi family made their application for asylum in Germany, they have residency there and Germany has agreed to accept them back.

"Therefore, in accordance with UK and international law we are removing the family to Germany.

"We are confident that Germany's treatment of the family's asylum application was, and will continue to be, fully compliant with its international obligations."

A Home Office spokeswoman said the cost of the flight was "nowhere near" the £60,000 claimed by Mr Makhlouf though she would not say how much it was costing, citing "commercial reasons".